How Do I Measure Success?

It's been just over a year since I started The Sunday Woodcarver. I had some goals in mind and I hope I have reached some of them. But I feel far from accomplished as a carver. That was never my goal. I don't remember saying my goal was to be the best carver in the world or the best blogger on the web. But I am happy with how far I have come in a year.

When I started this blog, my goal was to become a better carver and to share my journey with carvers of like mind. I had hoped I could also sustain the blog over time, which I why I chose carving as a theme, because I knew I would have a sustained interest. I have gained a few followers, although that was never a specific goal. I have had over 20,000 pageviews (not counting mine) and I guess that was a goal although I never knew what to expect and I don't even know if 20,000 views in a year is a lot. I guess for a little carving blog it's a good number. With all those followers and views there have been very few comments left and I wish there were more. Honestly, every comment means a lot and lets me know there are actual people out there who are interested in what I have to share.

Along the way, I set up a YouTube account and started adding videos of my adventures. They too have gained a fair amount of followers. It has been a real learning experience to see who is interested in what kind of project. I don't know if I have said this before, but I don't consider my blog or videos to be instructional per se, but rather a chance for viewers to see how one person tackle a project in a specific way and show what I have learned since I got serious about carving. I guess that is teaching, but that is not what I intended. If so, I would edit out my mistakes, but I think it's helpful to see someone try a project or technique for the first time and figure out how to get out of trouble when that inevitably happens.

Of course, the original aim was to get myself focused on getting better by carving at least once a week (Sunday). Now there's seldom a day that goes by that I don't do some carving. And for sure, that goal has been met. I can say without hesitation that if you carve every day, or at least a few days every week, you will better at it. Thanks for being part of my journey!